10 Big Data Pros To Follow On Twitter

Twitter’s kind of an ironic place to look for big data wisdom. It’s an example of the ubiquitous services used by consumers and businesses alike that help generate this avalanche of data in the first place.

Twitter has a valuable collection of big data knowledge — if you know where to find it. Like other social platforms, Twitter can sometimes get noisy. Throw in a buzzword like “big data,” and the noise can get downright cacophonous. So how do you find the information you want?

It helps not to get too caught up with the term “big data” in the first place. “Often the most interesting people to follow for big data would never consider themselves ‘big data experts,’” says Matt Asay, vice president of marketing, business development, and corporate strategy at MongoDB.

Asay and other folks in and around the big data universe shared with us their favorite individuals to follow on Twitter for news, ideas, networking, and more. We threw in our own picks, too, and we came up with 10 big data people worth following on Twitter. Consider it a starting point — your own list might be much longer (more on that later). The fundamental common element: These are people from whom you can learn in 140 characters or less.

That’s a good thing. Anyone can drop “big data” or related terms and technologies into a tweet or other communications, but that doesn’t mean that person is an expert. I could tweet about a delicious piece of cake, but I’m not a pastry chef. So look beyond terms for substance, and think about other areas — open source, for example — that could be highly relevant but are not necessarily strictly big data-related. Keep this in mind as you choose people to connect with and follow.